April 15, 2009

Gay Rights in the Mainstream Media, Gay Rights in the Twitter Stream

Rep. Beth Bye of Connecticut holds her marriage license, the first issued to a gay couple in the state, on March 6, 2009. (Photo: George Ruhe/AP)

When Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot in November 2008, gay rights were not yet a mainstream topic. Ironically, when Prop 8 passed, support for gay marriage started to mount. Whereas once homophobia was considered “the last accepted prejudice,” people came out in large numbers to protest the ban, and the media covered it. More states started to push harder for marriage laws. Recently, Iowa and Vermont passed laws in favor of gay marriage, and the District of Columbia council voted to recognize marriage in other states.

Now, the media watch on gay marriage is so tuned in that The New York Times City Room blog published a piece yesterday about N.Y. Gov. David Paterson’s anticipated but unconfirmed plans to introduce a gay marriage bill. Ten years ago, homosexuality was still a taboo topic, but in the past year, most media outlets, and many Americans, take the importance of gay rights as a given.

But perhaps the best example of all was the fast spread of news about the so-called #amazonfail on Twitter. A handful of gay authors found that their books had been reclassified as “adult” on Amazon and therefore could not be found on search. A decade ago, I genuinely believe that those few authors would have been the only ones to know or care about that situation. But this weekend, #amazonfail became the most popular search topic on Twitter.

Amazon decided it was such an emergency that employees were called in on Easter Sunday to fix the problem. The fact that the mistake is being called a PR disaster tells me that somewhere along the way, this country’s attitude toward homosexuality has shifted. No longer is homophobia “the last accepted prejudice.”
Rachel Balik
Senior Writer

Their goal is to promote equality by working alongside individuals who were fairly conservative and mostly against homosexuals. In doing so you get to know the people and eventually begin conversing about our differences in a positive way. I realize that not everyone will open up, but for the few that did you could see their views change as they asked more questions and realized the stereotypes were mostly wrong.

I encourage anyone looking to get involved in the fight for lgbt equality to look up the Empowering Spirits Foundation. They have a truly rare approach to the struggle for gay rights, which in my personal opinion will greatly encourage equality than just marching in a parade.

Over the past few months I’ve participated in the marches and vigils for gay rights sponsored by various groups such as Equality California, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Courage Campaign. It has been great to see the massive turnouts and outpouring of support. But after leaving I felt we hadn’t accomplished much other than raise our voices in unison to the media. However, this past weekend I took part in a project to build a house sponsored by the Empowering Spirits Foundation and was blown away. Their goal is to promote equality by working alongside individuals who were fairly conservative and mostly against homosexuals. In doing so you get to know the people and eventually begin conversing about our differences in a positive way. I realize that not everyone will open up, but for the few that did you could see their views change as they asked more questions and realized the stereotypes were mostly wrong. One lady even said to me “it’s been great speaking with you, you are the first gay person I’ve met and not what I expected.” It was great to not only make a difference in the community, but feel like you truly made an impact in changing someone’s opinion of gays.

I encourage anyone looking to get involved in the fight for lgbt equality to look up the Empowering Spirits Foundation. They have a truly rare approach to the struggle for gay rights, which in my personal opinion will greatly encourage equality than just marching in a parade.